UN Zimbabwe Envoy To Issue Report, Brief Press Friday

Spokespersons for United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan confirmed on Thursday that a report prepared by special envoy Anna Tibaijuka on the impact of Zimbabwe’s demolition campaign will be released Friday morning and that Mrs. Tibaijuka would then brief the U.N. press corps on her findings.

The Tibaijuka report was scheduled to be released at 9 a.m. and the briefing was to begin at 11 a.m. at U.N. headquarters in New York. The report was handed to Zimbabwe’s permanent representative to the U.N. on Wednesday, and Harare was promised 48 hours to review her conclusions and issue a response.

Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the U.N. confirmed Wednesday that he had received the report and transmitted it to Harare. Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Boniface Chidyausiku said he hoped the report would focus attention on the needs of the Zimbabwean people, attributing their distress to a broad economic crisis.

With the report’s contents unknown but generally expected to be tough on the Harare administration given public comments by Mrs. Tibaijuka and U.N. chief Annan, Professor Sulayman Nyang of Howard University in Washington, D.C., said the Tibaijuka report will at least put a working document on file. Much of what will come of the report in terms of its consequences for Zimbabwe will depend on how President Robert Mugabe responds to it, he added.

Dr. Nyang, a professor in the African studies department at Howard University, spoke with reporter Chris Gande of VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe.